


Power

by malevolentmango



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Gen, lup's trapped in an umbrella y'all it ain't great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 13:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14214531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malevolentmango/pseuds/malevolentmango
Summary: Her world is black, until it's not.And with the color comes the rage.





	Power

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ToTillAGarden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToTillAGarden/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Eden! I love you! <3
> 
> This fic is based on Eden's amazing [umbrella angst creations](https://archiveofourown.org/series/924831), and also the [ones written by Tess](https://archiveofourown.org/series/936102). Please read them because they're amazing and definitely the inspiration behind this one!

Her world is black.

 

She remembers color. She remembers whole worlds where the colors they knew were flipped. She remembers the pure, deep blue of vast oceans, and the golden red sun setting over the horizon, and the shimmering purple of the Plane of Magic as it crashed into an empty world. She remembers the silver rings dangling from Taako’s ears and the flashing white glint of his grin. She remembers the soft, pale blue of Barry’s smiling eyes.

 

Her world is black.

 

**Simple. Uniform. Perfect.**

 

_ Shitty. I want to see color. _

 

**There is nothing else.**

 

_ Bullshit. _

 

**There is nothing but power.**

 

_ I guess you’re not fucking wrong there. _

 

She knows there is color in this place. Wonderland, Lucretia called it. Even without the name, it sounds like the kind of place that’s colorful. The beat of the music is louder than anything else, louder even than the reassuring thrum of Taako’s heartbeat through the handle of the Umbrastaff. The music comes to a sudden stop, and Taako’s heartbeat stops with it as he stores it somewhere so that he can clap delightedly.

 

She wishes he wouldn't. Her only comfort is being able to feel him on the other end, to know that he’s still there _. _

 

A voice from far away asks if the three (four) of them are ready to begin their quest in Wonderland. Taako expresses his excitement, and Magnus engages in the most awkward flirting she’s ever heard from him, and for a moment, she feels something like happiness. Muted, hazy, filtering through layers and layers of cloth and magic.

 

She feels.

 

**Distraction.**

 

She feels nothing.

 

**Focus on your task.**

 

She wants to feel again.

 

**Protect Taako.**

 

_ As if I need you to tell me to protect my own brother, you useless piece of fabric. _

 

The Umbrastaff does not respond. Whenever they happen to agree on something, it never has anything to say.

 

It quickly becomes clear to her, even trapped inside this awful thing as she is, that there’s nothing “wonderful” about Wonderland. Stolen body parts and erased memories, her family drained away bit by bit - as if they had any pieces  _ left _ to lose, after all they’ve been through, as if what they sacrifice isn’t already their bare minimum. 

 

Taako screams at the others to  _ Forsake, _ again and again, and while she knows that her brother is changed, it still feels like a punch to the gut. There was a time, so many cycles ago, when he promised her that he wouldn’t let himself reach that place again, where wanton slaughter became an acceptable solution. But that’s a time he doesn’t remember, and without it, he’s forgotten how to  _ Trust. _

 

**Trust is a weakness.**

 

_ Oh yeah? Why don’t you tell me what your weakness is then, huh? Get this all out in the open? _

 

**You.**

 

_ What the fuck is that supposed to mean? _

 

**You are a weakness. A thorn. A cancer.**

 

_ Nah, my name is Lup. Nice try though. _

 

**Your name is of no importance. Your name does not protect.**

 

_ Listen up, asshole, I fought hard for this fucking identity, and you’re not gonna be the one to take it away from me. _

 

There is silence. Outside, Magnus gives them a name and a mission, and Lup files them away for later. For the future, when she finally escapes this damn umbrella.

 

She has to believe that she’ll escape. She has to believe that Taako will remember her, that he’ll find her.

 

**You are lost. You are only power.**

 

_ Give it a rest, will ya? I’m trying to listen. _

 

Something's happening, something important, and she can't see,  _ she can't see,  _ but it sounds like they're making their escape. But it can't be that easy, nothing in this awful place ever is. She strains, listening to them talk about  _ advertising _ of all things, and then--

 

A bell. It rings, just once, but she knows what it means. She was there when it was created. 

 

_ Taako? Taako?? _

 

**No. The other one. The brute.**

 

_ Oh, Magnus, no… _

 

**It is of no consequence.**

 

She kicks the curtained wall, because she has no other form of retribution. 

 

She falls. 

 

Not inside the Umbrastaff, but out, and she realizes she can't feel Taako's heartbeat anymore because he's not  _ holding _ her anymore, and why not? Why not?

 

**Gone.**

 

_ What the hell does that mean? _

 

**A powerful arcana. He retreats from this plane. You cannot protect him.**

 

_ Fuck that. _

 

Before she even has time to think about it, to formulate a plan (What plan? What can she possibly do? She is caged, lost, forgotten.) she feels it again. Taako's heart, his grip on the handle. He's safe. For now.

 

**He returns.**

 

_ Magnus?? _

 

**Taako.**

 

_ No shit. _

 

**The brute returns also, but he is wrong.**

 

_ What? Is he okay? _

 

The Umbrastaff either doesn’t have an answer, or doesn’t care enough to give it to her. Probably the latter.

 

She listens again, and she knows their voices by now. Edward and Lydia. They’re the ones who take, and take, and take, they’re the ones who make her and Barry (Barry,  _ Barry) _ the exception to the rule that is lichdom, they’re the ones who are making her family suffer. If she could just get through these curtains, out of this inky blackness and into the light and the color and the sound, into the place where her brother is, she could put an end to this once and for all. She could show these other liches what real power is, what it means to fight for the people you love rather than tear that love away from others. And she paces and struggles and tears at the walls, she beats against them with her fists until it almost feels like pain, and she cries out…

 

**Consume.**

 

And then, she is no longer alone.

 

It’s one of the liches, Edward she guesses, appearing from the Umbrastaff’s opening in a flash of color, and she takes a moment to drink all those colors in - the wild purples and oranges and greens of his ridiculous outfit, before they begin to bleed away. There is no color here. Her world is black.

 

But she doesn’t need to see him for this. 

 

He speaks, but the words are inconsequential. She asks him, with a voice she forgot that she had, if he’s the one who’s been hurting her brother. And he speaks more words, more pointless words that could never save him from what happens next no matter how hard he tried.

 

**Destroy.**

 

And she  _ feels. _

 

Power sparks across her skin, courses like fire through her veins. Edward puts up a struggle, a pathetic one that’s over in moments. He falls, charred and broken, beneath the weight of her incredible fury, and she feels so, so  _ alive. _

 

**Complete.**

 

_ You don’t own me, damn it. _

 

**And you do not own me.**

 

_ I made you! _

 

**I am you.**

 

And sometimes, when they’re in agreement, she finds she has nothing more to say.

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat with me about TAZ on [tumblr](http://malevolentmango.tumblr.com)!


End file.
